Movie: Brokeback Mountain (D, WE)

I thought Brokeback Mountain would be sad and poignant. Instead, it is merely bleak and undertold.

When Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) first go to Brokeback Mountain to take care of a herd of sheep, they deal with growing feelings of attraction and begin a summer romance. We get to see their emotions build, and these are some of the best scenes of the film.

Once they leave the mountain, each of them marries and starts a family. Their romance becomes a series of distantly-spaced "fishing trips" that they hide from their wives. Unfortunately, little effort is made to show their relationship moving forward. The film relies much too heavily on our memories of what drew these men together in the first place, instead of trying to convince us their current relationship is based on more than forbidden sex.

This undertelling becomes most obvious because of Ennis, an emotionally- constipated man who moves silently through the world. He might loosen up with Jack, he might become more free and less reserved when they are alone together, but the audience never gets to see it. For this to be a convincing romance, I needed to see Ennis become more emotionally uninhibited with Jack than with anyone else in his life.

If any of that happened, it took place off-screen.

This film did an outstanding job at looking at the price these characters--and their families--pay because of their hidden relationship. Unfortunately, it didn't do enough to convince me that what they got out of their relationship was worth it. Grade: B